


Fever

by ChemicalCinderCat



Series: Beetlejuice Stories [6]
Category: Beetlejuice (TV 1989)
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, BJ to the rescue, But I mean it's a story, But whether it's romantic or platonic is up to you, Drink the damn water, F/M, Fever, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, I mean they definitely love each other, Lydia feels like she's dying, Mt.Blanket, Nudity, Older Lydia AU, Really just depends on how you look at it, Slight Beetlebabes, So it's not like you can actually see anything, i guess, sick, twist ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-26
Updated: 2020-04-26
Packaged: 2021-03-02 07:06:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,421
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23847172
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChemicalCinderCat/pseuds/ChemicalCinderCat
Summary: When Lydia forgets to visit him twice in a row, Beetlejuice goes to check on her, only to find her with an extreme fever. He takes care of her and helps her get better, much to her surprise.Whether or not this is Beetlebabes (it could honestly be looked at as either romantic, or platonic) is up to you, so I tagged it as both.
Relationships: Beetlejuice & Lydia Deetz, Beetlejuice/Lydia Deetz
Series: Beetlejuice Stories [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1721896
Comments: 6
Kudos: 45





	Fever

**Author's Note:**

> Warning: There is a scene where Beetlejuice sees Lydia naked. It is ONLY because he is trying to help her, and he does NOT take advantage of her fevered state of mind. If this seems inappropriate to you, just don't read it.

Beetlejuice was bored.  
The Ghost With The Most was currently channel-surfing, trying to find something to do. Maybe bored wasn't the best word, but he really wanted something, anything to entertain himself. Sadly, nothing was on but ghost soap-operas. They could be hilariously dramatic sometimes, but Beetlejuice didn't feel like watching them without someone (*cough cough* Lydia! *cough*) to laugh with him.  
Really, Lydia was the reason Beetlejuice was bored. It wasn't her fault or anything, she didn't do anything wrong. It was just that nothing seemed appealing to do without her. He hadn't realized just how much he enjoyed her company until he was without it. Sure, they were best friends and all, and they hung out practically everyday, but Beetlejuice hadn't so much as heard from Lydia all day, and it bothered him. He understood if she was busy, she had a life (unlike him, being dead and all), but she usually at least said checked in on him to make sure he was doing fine without her, or just for a quick chat. Today he hadn't heard anything. Or the day before. This was the longest they had gone without talking to each other, and it made him get this feeling inside of him, something he couldn't ever remember feeling before, and he didn't know how to feel about it.  
Worry.  
Beetlejuice was worried for his friend. Being worried was a perfectly natural thing, and it showed he truly cared for Lydia, but Beetlejuice didn't know that. All he knew was that it was a strange feeling for him, which he didn't like, so he decided to go and check on Lydia.  
Teleporting into her mirror, Beetlejuice was slightly confused. The door to Lydia's bedroom was shut, the curtains were closed, and the room was dark. This in itself was a bit strange for it being 4:00pm, but knowing that this was his Lyds he was thinking about, it wasn't all that weird. What was weird was that it seemed Lydia was buried under a mountain of blankets in her bed. Now that was definitely off.  
"Psssssst," Beelejuice called in a whisper, in case she was asleep. "Lyds, it's me, let me in!" The blanket mountain shifted, and Beetlejuice heard a murmur. Lydia was awake, she had called his name. He hadn't been able to hear her, but he got the feeling in his gut that happened whenever someone said his name. Then another murmur, followed immediately by the same feeling once more. Then…  
Nothing.  
That was most definitely strange, Lydia never stopped in the middle of calling him. Maybe she'd fallen asleep? While he knew it was a real possibility, Beetlejuice couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong.  
"Babes?" He called, slightly louder than the first time. "Come on, Babes, one more time! Don't leave me hanging!" He whisper shouted.  
Suddenly Beetlejuice was pulled through the mirror and into the room. That time he hadn't even heard Lydia murmur, but obviously she had, for he was now in her bedroom. He quickly floated over to Mt.Blanket, which seemed to be vibrating. Lydia peeked out from under the covers, her eyes red and puffy and her face drenched with sweat.  
"Lyds?" Beetlejuice asked softly as Lydia closed her eyes. "Are you okay, Babes?" Lydia mumbled something unintelligible. "What was that? I can't understand."  
"...old…" Was the response.  
"Babes, I can't understand you. Please, you have to tell me what's wrong, or I can't help!" Beetlejuice exclaimed, trying not to freak out. He'd never seen his best friend in such a terrible state, and it startled him.  
No, not startled. Terrified.  
"... So...cold…" Lydia said, opening her eyes again, but being unable to focus on anything in particular. Beetlejuice's heart sank, realizing that what he had first suspected was true. He placed his hand on Lydia's forehead, feeling how hot her skin was. Lydua had a fever, and a very high one at that.  
It was then Beetlejuice realized that the blankets weren't vibrating at all; Lydia was shaking uncontrollably. Beetlejuice wasted no time in scooping Lydia up into his arms and juicing them back to his house. He gently set her down on his bed, before darting around his house, desperately searching for a thermometer. Finally he found one buried deep in his dresser; Beetlejuice was already dead, so he didn't get sick, and therefore had no use for a thermometer very often. He ran back to Lydia and took her temperature.  
106.8  
"Shit!"  
As long as it had been since Beetlejuice was alive and had to deal with sickness, even he knew that a fever that high was extremely dangerous. It angered him greatly that Lydia's fever had been left untreated long enough for it to get so high. He was pissed, but as much as he wanted to go and make her parents pay, Lydia had to be his top priority at the moment. Bringing down her fever was all that mattered.  
The first thing Beetlejuice did was get a nice, tall glass of water, and take it over to her. He propped up a few pillows behind her, sitting her up enough to not choke on the water, and tried to get her to drink. The stubborn teen refused, shaking her head no and looking away.  
"Lydia," Beetlejuice practically begged. "Come on! You need to drink this water, please! Of the things to fight me over, now is not the time!"  
Lydia flinched, starting to cry. Beetlejuice's eyes widened as he saw he made her cry.  
"Oh, no, Lyds, please don't cry. I didn't mean to yell, I just… I need you to drink this. It will make you feel better."  
"M-my head… hurts so much…"  
After a few minutes of persuasion, Beetlejuice finally got the half-conscious girl to drink some water. Then he had her take Ibuprofen for the headache, and put a cool, damp washcloth on her forehead. After about 20 minutes, her fever had gone down by a few tenths of a degree, but wasn't enough to satisfy Beetlejuice  
(A/N: He will never be satisfied, I will never be satisfiiiiieeddddd!! Sorry, I had to let out my inner Angelica.) Beetlejuice thought for a second. If a cold wash rag was the answer to helping with low fevers, it didn't take a genius to figure out that a cold bath should help Lydia. However, even if he could get her to focus enough to get into the bath, he definitely didn't trust her to bathe in this state. It was bad enough that she couldn't walk right, and could slip and hit her head while getting into the tub, but the fear that she might pass out in the tub and drown was a whole other story. It was too much.  
Beetlejuice was torn. He loved Lydia. You can't have someone you care about in your life for that long and not love them. He wasn't entirely sure just how Lydia felt towards him, (whether she thought of them as friends, or something more,) but either way he didn't want to be creepy, or make her feel uncomfortable, and most of all he didn't want to betray her trust.  
In the end, Beetlejuice figured it out. He did love Lydia, which meant he would do what was best for her, and risk how it would affect their friendship. He left Lydia's side to go to his bathtub and scrub it out fairly quickly. It was filthy, and would've taken much longer had it not been for his juice. Then he filled it with cool water.  
Beetlejuice approached Lydia slowly, not quite sure how to go about this. "Hey, Lyds?" He called softly as he got closer.  
"Hmm?" Lydia murmured, still in a confused state of mind.  
"We gotta get you in the bath, alright?" Beetlejuice continued as he returned to his spot right by her side. "Can you help me take your clothes off?"  
Beetlejuice sat Lydia up, causing her to wince and clench her head in pain. He helped her stand up, and she stumbled a bit, so he put her arm around his neck, supporting her weight so she could get to the bathroom.  
As they got to the bathroom, and Beetlejuice started to help Lydia out of her clothes, she suddenly pulled away from him and stumbled over to the toilet, throwing herself over it just in time to vomit. She started crying and trembling, and Beetlejuice just stood behind her and held her hair out of the way. Once she finished, he ran back to the bedroom and came back with her water, so she could get rid of the awful flavor.  
After a little bit of struggling with the clothes, (Beetlejuice only struggled because he didn't want to take off her panties, and instructing a sick, unfocused sick person to take off their underwear isn't the easiest thing to do.) Lydia was finally in the bath. Beetlejuice sat nearby, facing the wall of the bathroom so that he wasn't seeing Lydia naked anymore than necessary, but he kept her in his peripheral so that he could make sure she stayed awake and safe.  
It was hard to admit, but even Beetlejuice knew that if it was any other girl, he wouldn't stop himself from admiring her beautiful body- Wait, did he just think that out loud?- but he respected Lydia way more than that, so this was how it was.  
After letting her sit for around 20 minutes, he helped her out of the tub (while specifically not staring at her), and gave her one of his old towels to dry off with. Then, he shut the door to the bathroom and stood right outside it, giving her privacy but staying close in case something happened.  
By the time Lydia was back in bed, Beetlejuice was taking her temperature again.  
103.6  
It was still a high fever, but it definitely made Beetlejuice feel better about helping Lydia get undressed to bathe. He made her drink some more water, and then replaced the cool rag to her forehead, using it and his juice to help her fall into a peaceful sleep. After a few moments of hesitation, Beetlejuice climbed into his bed next to her, wrapping his arms around her. Soon enough, both the doctor and the patient were in deep sleep.  
~~~  
Lydia woke up feeling groggy. What a great night's sleep! She thought with a smile, yawning as she rolled over. Her smile vanished instantly when she saw Beetlejuice in bed with her.  
What is he doing in my bed?? Lydia thought in a panic. Sure, she had been feeling a bit weird towards the Ghost With The Most lately, but surely nothing had happened! Then, she realized that Beetlejuice wasn't in her bed.  
She was in Beetlejuice's bed!  
Lydia couldn't decide if that made it better or worse.  
After a few moments of calming down, the events of the night before, or at least, what Lydia could remember of it, started to come back to her. She had felt terrible, constantly freezing no matter how many blankets she hid under, and the headache was the worst! And then Beetlejuice had come, and he took her to his bedroom, and he made her drink water, and he took her clothes off so she could bathe, and he held her hair back while she threw up, and he helped her go to sleep, and-  
Wait.  
…Beetlejuice… took off… her clothes??  
Having just woken up, this was a lot for the teen to handle. She felt her face blush bright red, imagining him taking her clothes off, (in reality it was nothing like how she was imagining) and she gasped as something hot reached over and touched her forehead. Realizing it was just Beetlejuice's hand, she was able to calm down a little more.  
"Heya, Babes. Did you sleep well?" Beetlejuice asked, his voice a bit rough from having just woken up. He reached for the thermometer as Lydia thought of how to respond. "You feel normal, but this thing is more of a doctor than I'll ever be." He explained as he took her temperature again.  
"Well, you still got a fever, but it's gone down quite nicely through the night. With a few days rest and plenty of water, you should be fine."  
Lydia smiled. "Thanks, Beetlejuice. For everything. But...Why did you sleep in the bed? You could've gotten sick yourself!" She scolded.  
"Geez, who are you, my mom?" Beetlejuice joked. "Besides, there's no reason to worry, Babes." He stuck his thumb out and pointed it at his chest proudly. "The Ghost With The Most never gets sick!"  
"Well, alright, Beetlejuice. If you insist." After a few moments of silence, Beetlejuice started, "About what happened last night? You know, with the bath?" He chuckled nervously.  
"Don't worry, BJ," Lydia reassured. "We'll never mention it again. I understand what a bad position that put you in, and all I can is that I trust you, and you didn't really do anything bad. So… as awkward as it is, there's no weird feelings, right?"  
"Of course!" Beetlejuice exclaimed, his face as bright red as Lydia's dress she loved to wear in the Neitherworld. "Thanks, Babes, for understanding. You really are the best."  
Lydia couldn't stop herself from throwing her arms around Beetlejuice. "Of course, Beej, you're my best friend! And thanks!"  
~~~  
Bonus Ending:  
The next day, Lydia's fever was gone completely, and she hurried through her chores so she could go to thank Beetlejuice. After going through the completely normal, everyday ritual of chanting magic words to a vase, magically changing into a blood red, spiderweb-patterned dress, and saying hello to her bat friends who were always included in the intro, Lydia was knocking on the door to Beetlejuice's house. Nobody answered. This wasn't that uncommon, and after years of going through this Lydia just let herself in without hesitation.  
Beetlejuice was laying in his bed, huddled under a mountain of blankets, shivering and sweating immensely. As bad as she felt, knowing what it felt like from having gone through it herself only 2 days before, Lydia leaned against the doorway to the bedroom, crossed her arms, and laughed, shaking her head. "Oh, Beetlejuice," She said, giggling. "What was that you were saying about never getting sick?"  
"Shush it, Babes. You know how much I hate it when you're right."  
"But Beetlejuice," Lydia laughed. "I'm always right!"  
And even Beetlejuice couldn't deny that.


End file.
